


I Could Get Used to This

by RiteOnTime



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 08:51:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2726258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiteOnTime/pseuds/RiteOnTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written pre-SoN.  The days leading up to Percy's disappearance.  Annabeth POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Last night was weird. And not in a good way. It was the kind of weird that you can’t get out of your head because it’s really hard not to think about it. Yesterday Percy and his mom picked me up from school, and then I stayed the night with them. It was the last day before the winter holidays started, and since I had no other place to go, they were kind enough to invite me to stay in their apartment. Percy let me sleep in his bed while he took the couch, which was nice of him in retrospect. I just wish that he had sought out more privacy before he, well… it’s hard to think about.

  
Last night, after spending a nice night with Sally, Paul, and Percy, I went to bed. Sometimes it takes me awhile to fall asleep, and last night was no exception. Part of the problem was that it was colder in the Jackson’s apartment than I expected, and since it’s warmer at camp I hadn’t packed any heavier pajamas. It didn’t help that Percy only had a single sheet on his bed. So it was inevitable that I would walk out to the living room to ask him for a blanket.

  
His mom and stepdad had already gone to bed, and I didn’t want to wake them up, so I opened the door as quietly as possible and headed down the short hallway, making as little sound as I could. I could see Percy sitting up on the couch looking at a picture frame on the table. Weird, I thought to myself, because he seemed to be focused on whatever the subject of the picture was.

  
“Percy,” I whispered in a voice that I thought was loud enough to be heard. Evidently I was wrong because he didn’t say anything or look back at me. I crept around the couch to get closer to him. His arm was jerking a little, which I also thought was weird. At this point, being a daughter of Athena, I should have put two and two together. I wish I had realized what he was doing before I saw it. That way I could pretend like nothing happened and in a few weeks I would forget.

  
I continued to walk around the couch, looking to see what he was doing. First, I looked at the picture frame to see what he was so focused on and saw a picture of me from this past summer before we had to start school. How sweet, I thought as I smiled. “Percy,” I whispered again, a little louder this time so that he would hear me. Just then he jumped up, Riptide in one hand and a tissue in the other.

  
And then I looked down. I wished I hadn’t looked down. Extending out of his boxers was his very noticeable erection. It took me a second to realize that I was staring longer than I should and I immediately turned around. From behind me I could hear Percy fumbling with his boxers while also grabbing a pillow, most likely to hold over his groin, although I never looked to check.

  
“Annabeth, I--” he started, but I quickly cut him off.

  
“Where can I find a blanket?” I asked him, forcing the words out as fast as I could. My cheeks were getting redder by the second and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

  
“There’s one under my bed,” he said, and as soon as he finished I practically ran out of the room and back to the safety of his bed. Thankfully he didn’t follow me; it would’ve just made things more awkward. When I got back to his room I shut the door both as quietly and as forcefully as I could, hoping that maybe it would keep me from seeing what I just saw. But I couldn’t shake the image of his erection from my mind. It just stuck there.

  
After a few moments passed I moved from the door and found my way to the bed, where I grabbed a blanket from underneath. All my movements felt jerky and slow. Eventually I lied back down again and put the blanket on top of me, but at that point my hyperactive brain started thinking about things I had previously tried not to think about. I started thinking about holding his member, and what it would feel like touching him. And then I started thinking about what it would feel like if he touched me, but at that I stopped myself. There was no reason for me to even be thinking those things. He and I had never even talked about anything sexual before, and I didn’t want to start now.

  
I resigned myself to go to bed, so I found a comfortable position and tried to take my mind off of what had happened. Except I couldn’t. But about an hour later I had fallen asleep. The next morning I woke up having forgotten all about what happened. Luckily, I didn’t have any dreams like usual, so I actually got to sleep soundly for once. So I got up and started going through my morning routine. About twenty minutes later I walked out of Percy’s room and into the living room where he was still asleep.

  
Sally was in the kitchen making breakfast; the blue pancakes that Percy loves so much. But that’s when I remembered what happened, and my cheeks started getting red again like last night. Just then Sally turned around and saw me, asking how my night was.

  
“Fine,” I said, sitting down at their small kitchen table and pouring myself a glass of orange juice. At that moment I realized how hungry I was. Sally saw Percy still lying on the couch and clicked her tongue.

  
“I’m going to go wake him up. Can you watch these pancakes for me?” she asked, holding up a spatula. I got up and took over, happy to have something to focus on in order to take my mind off of things. From the room over I could hear Sally telling Percy he needed to wake up, or we were going to be late getting to camp. He groaned a little and eventually got up, moving off to his room. Sally came back to the kitchen and started work on the pancakes again, so I went to sit back down.

  
Paul came out of their room with a smile on his face and went to open the front door to get the paper before sitting down at the kitchen table across from me. He kissed Sally good morning and then offered me the arts section, knowing that I was always interested. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Percy came back having changed and seemingly showered. When he saw me his face flushed a deep red almost instantly, but he sat down at the table next to me.

  
“Can we go talk?” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, but before I could reply, Sally set down a plate stacked with pancakes. Since I was more inclined to eat than to have a very embarrassing discussion with Percy, I thanked her and started shoving food into my mouth. Maybe this will deter him, I thought to myself. Whatever way I could keep him from mentioning last night was okay by me. What kind of idiot doesn’t even go to the bathroom for that stuff? The more I thought about how stupid he was the more I saw the image of his erection sticking out of his boxers. For a kid with ADHD, it’s hard to stop thinking about something once you’ve started, but I tried to force these new thoughts out of my head.

  
There were times throughout the few months we’ve been together where I had let my mind wander towards things of an X-rated nature, and when I started doing some research into it, I had to stop myself immediately. It was very likely that I could develop an appetite, so to speak, and that Percy would not react well if he found out. While it was okay to think, alone, in my room, when no one else was there, thinking with Percy around was more embarrassment than I wanted to handle. I just hoped that we could totally avoid talking about it until some distant time way in the future, although the chances of him letting it go were slim.

  
About half an hour later we had loaded all of our stuff into the back of Paul’s Prius and headed off to Camp. It would take about twenty minutes to get there and I had resigned myself to a very silent, very awkward car ride. Sally and Paul sat at the front talking to each other, which was fine by me. I didn’t want them picking up on the weirdness going on between Percy and me. There was a lot of weirdness. Sometimes I could see him looking at me, maybe trying to figure out what I was thinking, but mostly he just looked out the window while I doodled in my sketchbook.

  
One of the main reasons I wanted to get to camp was because I was overseeing the reconstruction of Olympus. It was almost complete and since I hadn’t had a lot of time to be there personally, I wanted to be there for when it was finished. Even though I had an army of Cyclopes at my disposal, I hadn’t anticipated the construction taking so little time. But in three days I was going up there to supervise the end of construction; and Percy was going with me.

  
I groaned internally just thinking about how awkward it was going to be with him. At the moment it didn’t seem like we were going to be talking about what happened, and I had planned to ignore it until he stopped trying to bring it up. But we were going to be staying on Olympus. Together. For a week. This sucked.


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days were very labor intensive. So laborious in fact that I had taken to wearing my invisibility cap to avoid any alone time with him. There was a lot to do at camp, and it was nice being back in a familiar place, but it was hard to enjoy with Percy always being around. I tried to stay by large groups of people, but doing that for three days is something of a challenge.

  
It was no surprise that the day before we were supposed to leave for Olympus, Percy found me in my cabin working on my laptop. And unfortunately enough for me, none of my siblings could be found. Before I could even begin to formulate an excuse, Percy held up a hand and said, “Annabeth, don’t.” He walked over to my bed and thankfully did not sit down, but rather leaned up against one of the poles connected to the bunk above me. I could feel him looking at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look back. When did I become such a wuss that I let talking to my own boyfriend scare me so much? In retrospect I was being really stupid, but I’d never had to deal with something like this before. Thankfully Percy broke the silence between us first, although what he said wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear.

  
“Look we need to talk about what happened. And don’t get me wrong, I was really embarrassed, but you can’t just ignore me forever, especially when we’re staying on Olympus together.” I could just tell he was looking at me in that sad way he likes to use on me. Damn him I thought, because I didn’t want to look at him but I also knew he was right. We did need to talk about it no matter how much I didn’t want to.

  
“If you think it’ll help,” I said, finally looking up at him. And I was right. He was using his sad face. Jerk.

  
“Well I didn’t actually think you’d agree so easily…” he mumbled, but obviously loud enough for me to hear him. Jerk. But I chose to ignore it.

  
“All I have to say is that I really wish you could’ve sought out some more privacy before doing… ‘that!’”

  
“It was almost two in the morning, I didn’t think you’d still be awake and I definitely didn’t think that you would walk out to the living room!” he said, coming off the beam and moving closer towards me, which I for some reason took stock of. Why would him getting closer to me make me nervous?

  
“I don’t really know what we have to talk about as far as this is concerned.”

  
“I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen. Look, we’re both at the point where we should probably talk about this stuff and—“

  
“This stuff? This stuff? What is this stuff that we need to talk about?”

 

“I’m just saying that—“

  
“You’re just saying that you think that we should already be talking about sex?” Truth be told, I’m not really sure where that came from. I never intended to even mention it. But I guess that was my subconscious working against me. Thoughts that I used to have started to bubble to the surface, and I could feel my cheeks start to flush. Go away hormones! I tried to tell my body to stop what it was doing but for some reason I was responding to this completely embarrassing conversation. Maybe… no. No, I couldn’t think that.

  
While I was having my own internal monologue, Percy moved and closed the door. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing, but when I did I was mad. Why did he suddenly feel the need to close the door? Was he planning something?

  
“Why’d you close the door?” I asked as he turned around back towards me.

  
“Because I don’t want other people to hear what we’re talking about!” he replied rather forcefully. And at that I conceded to agree; I didn’t want anyone to overhear us either.  
“This isn’t something I want to talk about right now.”

  
“Well then I’ll talk and you can listen and I know you’re going to punch me for saying that later but whatever. Annabeth, just hear me out. I’ve known you for years and I have feelings for you that I don’t want to voice because honestly I don’t know if you want to hear that yet. But you’re my best friend and you’re my girlfriend and sometimes I have to do that stuff because I know we are way far away from sex. And because I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, I just do ‘that’ and keep what I want to myself since all of that is up to you anyway. And when I finally got to see you after these past couple of weeks, I couldn’t help myself because I’d missed you and sometimes that’s what I do.”

  
For once it seemed like Percy had shown me up. I thought that I was supposed to be the smart one in the relationship, and somehow he had been smarter about this than me. After all, I guess he was right. And he wasn’t trying to force me to do anything; he was just trying to make sure he didn’t make me uncomfortable. Which was kind of nice in a weird way. In a Percy way I guess. But I felt better now that he explained himself.

  
“Who said I hadn’t thought about it?” I asked him, acting innocently. I both wanted to talk about sex and tease him, but now that I felt better I really wanted to tease him.  
“You have?!” he exclaimed, as I knew he would.

 

“Maybe a little bit,” I replied, just as innocently as before. He then moved to sit down on my bed with me, and I moved my laptop off to the side.

  
“So, you’re like, naughty?” he asked me. As soon as he got the last word out I punched him on the shoulder. “Okay, okay, sorry,” he mumbled, massaging his shoulder. But I could see his smile and I smiled back in return.

  
“That doesn’t count as the punch you’ll get for telling me to shut up. That was just a bonus punch.” I punched him again. “And so was that.”

  
“You can be really mean sometimes, you know that? I know you said you’d never make things easy for me, but come on…” he muttered, rubbing the spot on his arm where I’d punched him again. Even though he’d gotten bigger than me, I was glad that I still had a little power over him. Except…

  
“Hey wait a second! What happened to not being able to feel pain? Were you just faking that?” I completely forgot that he was now invulnerable, except for one spot on his back that I somehow unconsciously knew about. When he hung his head and started mumbling, I knew he had been faking being hurt by my punches. With his head turned the other way, I reached around him to where I thought his “Achilles’ spot” was and poked him. He shot up and emitted something like a shriek and a squeal that I couldn’t help cracking up at.

  
“What was that for!” he stated more than asked. Of course he knew what it was for. He massaged his back while I tried to regain control from my laughing fit.

  
“Well I’ve got to keep you in check somehow.” He looked at me with feigned innocence and I thought I had an idea of what he was going to say.

  
“Ya know, if you think I’ve been a bad boy, you could always just punish me…” but before he got any further I went to poke his back, except he was quicker than me. He grabbed my wrist and simultaneously pulled himself closer to me so that our legs were touching. And then he kissed me. These weren’t the kind of kisses that he had given me when I would go over to his house; those were pecks since his parents were around. There was a longing in these kisses, and a lust. And I could feel myself responding to that.

  
Before I knew it we were laying down next to each other, kissing with a passion I had never experienced between us prior. The feelings I used to have safely in my dorm when I was alone started coming back to me. I felt so excited, but there was also a knot of nervousness in my stomach. What if things go too far? I thought as I rolled on top of Percy to take charge. His hands were beginning to roam and I knew we were fast approaching uncharted territory and I didn’t know if we were ready for that; I didn’t know if I was ready for that.

  
But I couldn’t stop. I wanted him; I had for a long time and now that we were alone in my cabin… Crap. We’re in my CABIN. And there’s no doubt that my mom can see us right now. And there’s every possibility that one of my siblings could walk in.

  
I had a sort of mental tug-of-war while we kept kissing; I wanted to see where this went but at the same time I didn’t want anyone else, especially my mother, seeing it as well. But Percy’s hands felt so good on my… Wait, his hands were on my butt. How did I not notice that before? Yeah, it felt good, but it seemed like he was getting away with too much.

  
“Okay,” I said, finally breaking free of him. He instinctively moved his head up to meet mine but only found empty air.

  
“What’s the matter?”

  
“I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. And there’s every possibility that my mother is watching or that one of my siblings could walk in.” At that I took his hands off my ass and placed them down on my bed. He looked at me with disappointment, and I was disappointed, too. But I just didn’t want to risk it. And if things did get to “that” point, I didn’t have any kind of protection, though whether or not he did wasn’t really a factor in my mind. Why am I even considering this?

 

“I hate it when you’re right,” he mumbled, pulling himself up into a sitting position. At that I couldn’t help but laugh.

  
“I am the daughter of the goddess of wisdom after all,” I said, half joking, and half attempting to ensure that there wasn’t any awkwardness later. Unfortunately my level of desire remained the same, and I wondered how long it would take before the feeling went away, if ever. Inwardly I sighed of frustration. If this was how I was going to feel all the time then I would have to find some kind of solution to abate it. You do have a boyfriend, my brain seemed to think on its own, and for a second I agreed before I forced myself to stop thinking like that.

  
“Whatever, Wise Girl,” he said, smiling at me. I smiled back at him.

  
“Sometimes you really are a Seaweed Brain.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Percy and I took one of the vans and drove into the city. Argus came with us to take the car back to camp, since we couldn’t leave it parked at the entrance to Mt. Olympus for the next few weeks. After yesterday, things with Percy and I seemed relatively back to normal, although last night I thought about him a lot; especially images from the night when I caught him fondling himself. For some reason thinking about that excited me the way I was excited when we were kissing on my bed. I made a mental note to learn more about what was going on and turned to look out the window as we drove through New York.

  
I may have seen the city hundreds of times, but I always loved looking at the buildings. Each time it was like a new experience and a new kind of anticipation. Plus, there was the added bonus of me seeing the almost completed Olympus in person for the first time since construction had started. Of course, I had seen glimpses in Iris messages when giving orders, but drawing something and seeing it up close and in person are two very different things. Also, I was excited to be staying there with Percy. As part of my plans, I had added in buildings in which we, the demigods, would have a place to stay should we ever visit Olympus, and Percy and I would be staying in one of those buildings. We would be staying in different rooms, obviously, but it would be nice to have some alone time after months of not really having any, and after those weird first few days.

  
Eventually we made it to the Empire State Building, which houses the entrance to Olympus. Percy hauled our bags through the doors and onto the elevator. After everything, I thought it would be a good idea to let him sweat, but he must’ve built up some more muscle because he didn’t seem to have a problem. And I bet he could use those muscles with me, I thought to myself. Okay, gross. I really needed to keep myself in check. We were staying in different rooms but it’s not exactly like we were going to be supervised or anything. And lately it became more and more apparent to me that my hormones were going out of control. Get yourself together, Annabeth.

  
We rode up to the five hundredth floor and got out, Percy letting me go first before grabbing our bags and walking out himself. As soon as I walked out I stopped in awe. Everything looked exactly like I had drawn it, and it looked beautiful. Not to brag, but these were some of the most amazing buildings I had ever seen; buildings that would last a millennia. I’m not sure how long I was standing there, slack-jawed with glazed over eyes, but after a while I could see Percy in my field of vision. He was walking down the steps from the collection of buildings for the demigods, so I guess he had put our stuff up in our apartment, so to speak.

  
When I saw him I broke out of my trance-like state and walked toward him. He had a mischievous grin on his face like he had been up to something, but I was sure I would find out sooner or later and I preferred to leave that for later.

  
“This place looks amazing,” he said, putting his arms around me. I hugged him back and tears sprung to my eyes. After all the devastation from the war, we had rebuilt and created so much beauty, and I was the one who got to do it. “You did a great job, Wise Girl,” he said, pulling back and kissing me on the cheek. All I could do was look at him and smile. I turned away to look back at the buildings, taking note of which ones were finished and which weren’t. Surprisingly, most of it was done, so I was wondering why I was asked to stay for so long if I wasn’t needed. I shrugged; I’m sure the gods would tell me soon enough.

  
“Come on,” I said, taking Percy’s hand and leading him through the new Olympus. Even though I had never been here, I still knew my way around like the back of my hand. We walked and I talked, occasionally running into some of the minor gods and goddesses. Percy seemed content to listen to me as I told him about a problem designing this building and what I did for that one, and I was so glad I finally had someone to listen to me while I talked about these things. I realized I hadn’t been able to talk this freely since… well since he and I had been at camp last.

  
Suddenly I stopped and looked at him and I could feel the happiness emanating from me. Now I knew what it was like when all those people talked about love and I thought they were just hopeless saps. Everyone I knew had let me down, and even though Percy annoyed me to death, not once had he let me down. He had been offered the chance to be a god and he turned it down for me. That’s when I knew I loved him. My buildings had given me the strength to see it, because I was too scared to without them. And I wanted to tell him. It didn’t matter if he felt the same way because I had to say it and give a voice to it, just so he knew.

 

“I want to tell you something,” I said, finally turning to look at him after I had stopped. He had a quizzical look on his face and I knew he thought that something was wrong. Then I realized my brow was furrowed the way it is when I’m thinking over a problem. I smiled to reassure him and some of the tension lifted.

 

“You may be a huge pain in my ass sometimes, but I haven’t felt like this in a long time. And no one else would ever listen to me the way you do. And I wanted to tell you—ʺ Crap. I froze up. Suddenly my mouth stopped being able to form any sound at all. What the hell was wrong with me?

  
“That you love me?” Percy finished for me, but with a question in his voice. He looked at me sheepishly but his mischievous smile was back. And I was shocked. So shocked that my mouth was agape like it had been when I first saw the new Olympus.

  
“How did you know I was going to say that?” I asked him, once I was able to form words again. I knew that yesterday he said that he had feelings for me he wasn’t sure I wanted to hear yet… Was he already going to tell me he loved me, too? What if he did? Being the idiot I was I hadn’t thought through all the possible scenarios of what could happen if I told him how I felt about him. It never even occurred to me that he would want to say it back, or feel the same way. Of course I knew that ever since the Labyrinth, and when he bathed in the Styx, that’s when he knew he wanted to be with me, but I didn’t think he was already here. I didn’t even know I was until half a minute ago.

  
“Now look at who’s the Seaweed Brain,” he said smiling, and then he laughed. I went to poke him in the back again, but just like yesterday, he caught my wrist and drew me into him. And then he kissed me, just like yesterday. Despite hating all those sappy love clichés, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that he was making my stomach flip kissing me like that. For the first time in my life I felt utterly helpless but completely at ease with it.

  
Percy let go of my wrist and wrapped his arms around my waist, still kissing me. He picked me up and I put my arms around his neck as he did so, laughing while we kissed. Eventually he drew back a little and I did, too.

  
“I love you, Annabeth,” he said tenderly.

  
“I love you, too, Seaweed Brain,” I replied, laughing lightheartedly. For once I was the ditsy girl in the story who falls head over heels for the hero. And Percy was definitely a hero. But I needed to be the one in control here. He wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he was in control.

  
“Alright, now put me down and let’s go back to the apartment.” He kissed me once and then set me down like I asked, yet he retained a grasp on my hand. I conceded to let him hold it, and I intertwined my fingers in his. We walked the short distance back to the apartment, Percy following behind me as we walked up the steps separating the buildings from the street. When we entered the apartment, I let go of his hand and walked off to the room I knew was mine, but I could hear him following me. I opened the door to my room and saw that Percy had left his bags in here as well, and I heard him follow me into the room.

 

“Percy,” I said, turning around, “why are your things in my room?” I asked somewhat forcefully. If he was having ideas, that was not good, because the whole walk back I was thinking about how much I wanted to jump him. That mischievous look was back on his face and I knew that’s why it was there earlier. So he was trying to pull something. Unfortunately it might work I thought silently.

  
“Well I knew I was going to tell you how I really felt and I was hoping that would go well, and I was also hoping that it would mean, well, you know…”

  
“Oh, I most certainly do know,” I said in a sultry voice. He looked up at me expectantly and as soon as he did I started wailing on him, slapping and punching so that he went cowering over onto the bed. Sorry, my bed. At one point I saw an opening to punch him in the back and I took it. Maybe I was more forceful than I should’ve been, but he kind of deserved it with that comment. But when I hit him I knew I had hit too hard, because instantly he flattened out on the bed, lying on his stomach and clutching his back.

  
“Percy, I am so sorry, I—ʺ and then I heard soft laughter coming from him and instantly I got mad again. I started poking his back this time, since I thought punching was a little rough. He made slight sounds of pain and at first his attempts to catch my hands didn’t work, but eventually he caught me by both wrists and held them in one hand. Percy turned back around with a huge smile on his face.

  
“So Wise Girl,” he said condescendingly. “How do you plan on getting out of this one?” he asked with one eyebrow raised. And I did the only thing I thought would work. I kissed him.

  
At first he was surprised, which was what I wanted, and he let go of my wrists. But then he got into it, and when I thought I should pull back, I could feel my body responding to his like it had yesterday. Uh-oh I thought, even though I knew that this time I wasn’t going to stop him. The only way we would stop is if someone interrupted us or if Percy did, which, let’s be honest, would never happen. I am Annabeth Chase after all.

  
When he let go of my wrists I used my arms to push him back onto the bed. We broke apart for a moment but I leaned back over him and we resumed kissing. And like yesterday, his hands began to roam. At first he started with my butt again, squeezing lightly before moving his hands up past my hips. As he went I could feel my shirt lift and I realized he was trying to take my shirt off. Okay, fine, I said to myself.

  
I put one leg on either side of him and straddled his pelvis. For a second he gasped before he resumed what he was doing with my shirt, but I didn’t want him to take it off just yet. In order to stall him, I began to lift up his shirt, and it worked.

  
“What’re you doing?” he asked, breaking away from me for a second.

  
“Taking off your shirt?” I replied, hands still on the hem. It was already half way up his chest so he sat up and let me take it the rest of the way off. For a second I just stared. I had never really gotten a chance to look at his bare chest before, and while he wasn’t overly toned, he looked very appealing. And that’s when my excitement started again.

  
“Fuck me,” I mumbled, but apparently Percy heard me because he pulled me back down and met me with his lips. We kissed for a few moments before he started work on my shirt again. He went slowly at first. And then he went even slower. And then he stopped when he was just under my breasts. I knew he was scared of me freaking out about what we were doing, but I was too caught up in the moment to care.

  
Instead of having him fumble around with it and making things awkward, I sat up, pulled my shirt off, and unhooked my bra, throwing them both onto the growing pile of clothes on the floor. “Holy shit,” Percy said looking at my now exposed chest. That’s when I felt the first sign of life from below his belt. Since I was still straddling him we were both very close and I could feel his hardness through his jeans, which only served to increase my excitement.

  
Just then Percy decided that he had had enough of being underneath me and he flipped us so that he was on top. He stayed in between my legs and he pressed his pelvis up against me so I could still feel his member through the thin garments we both wore. Surprisingly, I let out a soft moan, something I had never done before. Percy’s member twitched in response and he was on me again, but this time he had put one hand on my breast while the other kept him propped up.

  
He was awkward at first but eventually got into a good rhythm that felt pleasurable. But all of a sudden he stopped short and pulled back, yet still retaining a hold on my breast.  
“Are you sure this is okay?” he asked me, somewhat worried.

  
“Your hand is on my breast,” I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

  
“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking his hand off of me. But that’s not what I meant when I pointed it out to him. I grabbed his hand that had recently vacated my body and put it back where it was, holding it there for a second before letting go.

  
“Yes, this is okay,” I said, looking him in the eye.

  
“Annabeth Chase you are full of surprises,” he replied. He began kissing me again almost immediately and I responded in kind. Then he moved his head off to the side and began kissing down my neck. At first it felt okay until he kissed one spot in between my neck and my shoulder that made me shudder. The first time, he didn’t realize it, but when he went back and I shook again, he began to pay more attention to that area. He experimented with lightly biting me and I began to shake more violently. I just hoped he continued with what he was doing.

  
But of course, he didn’t. He moved downwards until he was just above my breasts. His hand had moved off to my thigh, but he now used it to cup my breast, bringing it to his mouth. He kissed it tentatively, and when he felt me respond with another soft moan, he continued, while also biting softly. After a few moments he moved onto my other breast, garnering the same reaction. I could feel a wetness in my panties and I knew that if he kept this up we would be swimming in that stuff.

  
I pulled him back up off my breasts when I couldn’t take it anymore. By now he had a very obvious bulge in his jeans and I wanted to see what was there again. At that point I thought that he had had enough of thinking he was in control, so I rolled us back over to where I was on top and straddling him. Percy didn’t seem to mind as the only form of protest I heard from him was a small grunt.

  
He seemed to know what I wanted because he unbuttoned his jeans and slid down the zipper. I lifted my hips as he slid them off and onto the ground until all that he was left wearing were some now very tight boxers. Yet when I went to release his beast, his hands stopped me.

  
“Now your turn,” he said, a hungry look in his eye. It was funny when he thought he could tell me what to do.

  
“I don’t think so,” I replied and with that I pulled down his boxers to reveal his member. Even though I had seen it once before, it was in a totally different situation. Now I had the chance to see it in my lust-filled state, which was much better than before. He looked to be about average size, but definitely more than enough for me to handle. Again, one of the soft moans from earlier escaped my lips and he smiled at me.

  
Now it was my turn. Our proverbial tug of war continued as he put himself on top of me again. He began unbuttoning and unzipping my jeans, but he stopped short before pulling them down.

 

“What’s the matter?” I asked him, knowing all too well what he was going to say.

  
“Is this what you want?” he asked with that same look of worry in his eyes. I thought it best not to force my clothes off this time.

 

“Of course, but only if you want it, too.”

  
“Oh I do, trust me,” he said, putting emphasis on the last two words. It seemed like he was seriously hormone-ridden, and I was, too, but I knew it was important to him to know that he wasn’t crossing a line I didn’t want crossed.

  
“I want you,” I told him, hoping that that would end the discussion. And it did. He slid my jeans off first, making sure that they fell on the ground before turning to my panties.  Rachel had tried to tell me about why other people where things that aren't practical, but I just didn't buy it.  So I don't have sexy underwear.  Does that really matter?

  
For Percy it didn't.  He started kissing me again and put a hand to work on one of my breasts. Since he was taking so damn long, I reached out for his member and grasped onto the shaft. I had never touched him in this capacity before, which excited me. I slowly worked my hand up and down his shaft, applying light pressure. Not long after, I heard him moan and he broke away from our kiss to watch me stroke him.

  
“Are you ready?” I asked him, knowing the answer would be an enthusiastic yes. He nodded his head vigorously, and before I could ask him, he popped up and went over to his bag. Of course he brought condoms, I thought, remembering to talk to him about that afterwards. It took him a second to get a condom out of what seemed like a large box, but he eventually got one and put it around his member.

  
He practically jumped back on top of me and we repositioned ourselves so that my thong was out of the way and his member was ready to penetrate me. It seemed like he liked me with my thong on, which I didn’t mind this time, but I would have to make a point of making sure it came off in the future. Percy looked at me for the go-ahead, and I nodded, anticipating the pain I expected to feel. He entered me slowly, which I was grateful for, so when he broke through my hymen it didn’t hurt as much as I thought.

  
After the initial twinge I felt ready to continue, so I nodded again and he pushed the rest of his cock into me. I had never felt anything like it and I had been right; he was the perfect size. Just enough so that it felt good, but not too much that it hurt. He slowly began to pump in and out of me until we both got used to the movement. Once we established a rhythm, he started going a little faster, but not as fast as I wanted.

  
“Faster Percy,” I moaned, because even though what he was doing felt good, I knew going faster would be better. He grunted in reply and went faster: much faster than I expected, and it felt better than I thought. The feeling was hard to explain, but I could feel a tension in my abdomen that kept building. I knew it was going to release. It was going to happen soon. Percy kept up the pace but his breathing came more laboriously.

  
“Annabeth…” Percy moaned, and before I could release, he did inside of me. He grunted and kept going, probably in an attempt to bring me over the edge. I knew it wasn’t enough, and I was okay with it this time, so I let him thrust a few more times before he pulled out and lay on his back. Thank the gods that Percy was smart enough to get condoms, because I knew I wouldn’t have told him to pull out.

  
His breathing was somewhat erratic, but after a few seconds he started to calm down. My breath was coming just as raggedly and it took me longer to get it back to normal. Eventually, when I started breathing evenly, I rolled over to look at Percy. He had taken the condom off and thrown it away and was now looking at me; more specifically he was looking at my body.

  
“Percy!” I exclaimed.

  
“Sorry, what?” he asked, pretending like he didn’t know what was going on. But a smile broke on his face and I smiled back. “I love you,” he said, kissing me lightly. He crawled to the top of the bed and got under the covers, beckoning me to cuddle with him. I shook my head no and got up, which he pouted at.

  
“You may have the luxury of taking a nap, but one of us actually has work to do,” I said, locating my bra and putting it back on before looking for the rest of my clothes.

  
“Suit yourself,” he said before rolling onto his side and closing his eyes. After I got my clothes back on I went over to kiss him on the cheek. “I love you, too,” I whispered before walking out of our room to the door leading outside. Even though I never meant for it to be, it was our room now.


	4. Chapter 4

I walked down a short path until I connected with the main road that led to the palace. Although Percy feigned tiredness after what we did, I knew he would probably be up soon. And he would also be bored out of his mind. Hopefully he would realize that he needed to greet the gods or else he would be in some serious trouble.

  
Which was why I was headed to the palace; to greet the gods. They don’t really appreciate it when people show up on Olympus and don’t visit them. That’s how people get smited. And if Zeus didn’t do it, I was sure my mother would, considering her disapproval of my relationship with Percy.

  
The effects of walking through the new Olympus had somewhat abated after first seeing it. Over time I knew that I would not be so awestruck, but to be sixteen and have the gods of Olympus ask you to redesign their home was kind of a big deal. Though hubris is my “fatal flaw,” I was seriously impressed with everything that I had accomplished. So I took my time walking to the palace, and I hoped that it would be okay with the gods. Somehow it seemed worth it if I was smited in such a beautiful place.

  
Looking around at everything that had been completed, I realized that there was much less to do than I thought, and that was saying something. As I continued my trek, I wondered why the gods had asked me to stay for a week when I wasn’t really needed. Would they want me to design something else? Was I being punished for not doing a good enough job? Questions ran through my mind as I walked the final steps up to the palace.

  
I had never been formally invited to Olympus before. The only times I had been here were when Percy, Grover and I brought back Zeus’s master bolt, after the Titan War, and the occasional trip to check on construction. And since the palace had not been too greatly damaged during the Titan War, I didn’t do much to change it in my plans for the new Olympus. The exterior was different, but inside it was pretty much the same.

  
Just ahead I could see the chairs of the twelve Olympians, and I was about to continue until I heard someone clear their throat to my left. I looked over to see Hermes, messenger of the gods, and apparently today the guy who keeps demigods from the throne room. He was wearing a very cutting dark blue suit with his phone/caduceus seemingly out of sight.

 

“Miss Chase,” he said rather formally, nodding his head once in my direction before returning to his original position.

  
“Lord Hermes,” I responded, turning towards him and mimicking his head nod. It was unusual for him to be standing outside of the throne room like this and I was curious why he was. After a moment, he broke the silence.

  
“As I am sure you are wondering, I did get your attention for a reason. I wish to warn you. The gods are not happy, Zeus specifically. It would be best not to offend them.”  
Before I could respond, he walked into the throne room. Any retort as to my conduct in front of the gods remained unspoken, but I took Hermes leaving as a sign to follow him. He walked into the throne room, and I could see many of the Olympians were there. Suddenly I became very nervous as Hermes’ warning rang in my ears. Maybe I was in trouble.

They watched me come in and as I saw they were all looking at me, my nervousness multiplied about ten times. I tried not to look at any of them directly, but when I did I couldn’t glean any hints in their faces about what was to come, which only served to make me more nervous. My mother offered no help and it was then that I resigned myself to whatever terrible thing they were about to do. Maybe Zeus was going to smite me.

  
I stood in the center of room with my back straight, though my eyes were burning holes in the column behind Zeus’ throne. A few moments passed and no one said anything. What if they were waiting for me to bow or something? It was probably too late for me to do it now, I should’ve done it when I first saw them. Now they really are going to smite me.

  
Finally, my mother spoke. “Annabeth,” she said in an effort to get my attention. I turned to look at her without hesitation and it was then that I went down to kneel. Hopefully that would help make up for the fact that I hadn’t bowed or something when I walked in. Gods help me.

  
Then something weird happened. Athena laughed. Not that she lost all composure and had a fit, but she laughed for a few moments. I looked up startled and saw smiles on the faces of many of the other gods. Some, like Hephaestus and Ares, did not change expression, but many did. Why are they all looking at me like that?

  
“Rise, my daughter,” Athena said, her laughter having ended. I did what she asked and tried to hide my confusion. At least for the time being there wasn’t going to be any smiting. Hopefully.

  
“Annabeth Chase.” My name echoed around the room and I knew I was being addressed by Zeus himself. I turned to look at him and saw an uncharacteristic smile on his face. Internally I felt my nervousness dissipate, but it was only to be replaced by anxiousness.

  
“As part of keeping our promise to Percy Jackson, we have decided to personally thank you for your efforts in redesigning our home,” he said. At that I went slack-jawed in surprise. Never had I heard of Zeus being so nice to anyone, and considering his dislike for Percy, I never expected him to be kind to me. But the gods had never promised to thank people for doing things for them. And it seemed that he wasn’t finished.

  
“While it is not in our nature to thank our children for their deeds, we do find it necessary to do so in this instance.” At that it seemed like his part in this was done. He inclined his head towards where my mother was, and I looked at her throne. But she wasn’t there.

  
Instead, she was striding towards me with another smile on her face. And then she did something that has never happened before, nor did I ever expect it to happen. She hugged me. I was entirely positive that this would never happen again, so I tried to think of this as just my mom giving me a hug for doing something well. But this was Athena and I couldn’t get past that fact.

  
She held me for a brief moment before pulling away. Her eyes were sparkling with the same grey that I had. I knew that later on I would wish this moment had lasted longer, but it is hard to react when your mother, known for being emotionless, shows more warmth towards you than you are taught to expect.

  
“You, my daughter, have done a wonderful job in creating a new Olympus. I could not be more proud.” She smiled again, and looking around I could see many other Olympians nodding their consent. This was even better than when we defeated Kronos. I thought that was the height of affection to be given by my mother.

  
“I don’t know what to say.” And in truth I didn’t. How is someone expected to react when the gods of Olympus have honored them so? Probably with a well-crafted statement of thanks, especially if you are a daughter of Athena. Then I realized that that’s exactly what they were waiting for from me. “Other than thank you of course. I never expected to be called to Olympus to be thanked.”

  
“That seems to be a common theme amongst demigods,” Poseidon muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, and he looked pointedly at Zeus when he said it. That did not go unnoticed and I made a note to remember the dissent present in his tone. While before, Hermes’ warning did not make sense, I was starting to see what he meant.

  
Zeus did not take heed of what Poseidon said, but his face did become taciturn as he looked at something behind me. Many of the other Olympians looked in his direction, and Hera, who had been particularly quiet and uninterested with what was going on, sat a little higher in her throne. I turned to see Percy bowing to the gods in turn and greeting each one of them assembled.

  
“My Lord Zeus,” he said, bowing deepest to him amongst the Olympians. But then I heard booming footsteps rush past me and as Percy stood up, he was almost pushed down onto the floor by a hand on his back. Poseidon had come off his throne to greet his son. He had a jovial expression on his face, which was no surprise; he was always happy to see Percy.

  
It seemed Percy had planned well; he came when the gods were in a better mood than they usually are, which meant Zeus would not want to kill him as much, and hopefully my mother felt the same. While Percy talked quietly with his father, I turned my attention back to the King of Olympus. They still hadn’t told me why we were going to be here for a week.

  
“Lord Zeus,” I began, trying to be as respectful as possible. “I am curious as to why we were invited here. The construction should be finished within a few days and while I appreciate the invitation, I don’t understand why I was asked here for so long.”

  
He still had the sour look on his face from when Percy walked in, but after a moment it began to melt away into the neutral face that Zeus wore best. “Miss Chase,” he started as formally as I had addressed him. “There will, of course, be festivities for the completion of the reconstruction! In three days-time, our city will be restored and it is only fitting that we have the celebration we should have had several months ago!” Though he was still somewhat taciturn at first, Zeus became as jovial as he probably gets by the end of his explanation.

  
Of course they would celebrate. This was good news. Sort of. Whereas I was sure that only something bad would come from an audience with the Olympians, I knew something bad was going to happen when a party was mentioned. Good things never happen when the Olympians partied. At that it seemed like I was to be dismissed.

  
My mother had returned to her throne, as had Poseidon. I thanked the gods and made my way to Percy, and together we walked out of the throne room and back towards the village.


	5. Chapter 5

Once he had determined that we were out of sight of any disapproving gods, Percy took my hand in his. He turned to look at me and I did the same, and we both smiled at each other.

  
“I can’t believe she hugged me,” I said, now that my moment with Athena had finally sunk in. I really did wish that it had lasted longer; things like that do not happen. Percy didn’t say anything. He just kept smiling as we walked. At first I wasn’t sure where we were going, but then I started to recognize familiar things and realized Percy was taking me to a park I designed for people to look down at New York. How he knew that’s where I wanted to be, I will never know, but I was glad he did.

  
There was a bench just far enough from the edge so that it was safe to sit down, but also close enough to see the city bustling beneath us. For a while we just sat next to each other until Percy put his arm around my shoulders. I leaned in to him and tried to relish in the moment. There were too many times I wished that something had lasted, and I didn’t want this to be one of those times. I didn’t want to regret not having experienced this with him.

  
Thankfully, Percy let us sit in silence. For once he wasn’t being annoying by trying to talk to me. That would have ruined everything. All I wanted was for him to be there so he could experience this with me, because sometimes you don’t need words, or there aren’t any. I would remember this day as one of the best in my life.

  
But he was being a bit too quiet. I turned to look at him and saw that his eyes were closed and he was propping his head up with the arm that wasn’t around my shoulder. Of course he was asleep. With a quiet sigh I pushed him not too gently in an effort to wake him up.

  
It was a successful effort. He woke with a start and flailed around, which was kind of funny, but he had just fallen asleep on me so I wasn’t all that amused. And then he looked at me with that sad face that works on me too well and I crumbled a bit on the inside, though I would never outwardly show it.

  
“I’m sorry,” he started, “I’m just really tired. You wore me down earlier.” He had that mischievous grin back on his face and I considered punching him in the back again before thinking better of it.

  
“Go and get some sleep.”

  
“What about you?” he asked, most likely because he wanted me to go with him.

  
“I want to stay out here for a little bit. I won’t be long.”

  
He got up and stretched before he bent down to kiss me goodnight. I could get used to that. And then he walked down to where our apartment was and I saw him disappear inside the building.

  
I turned my attention back to the skyline and remembered passing through New York on our way here. It filled me with so much purpose to look at everything man had created, demigods and mortals alike. After what was probably an hour I got up to go to bed as well.

  
The walk back to our apartment didn’t take very long and I wasn’t surprised to find that the lights were off and the rooms quiet. I walked to the room Percy and I were sharing and saw that the bed was untouched from before and Percy was nowhere to be found. Calling his name garnered no answer, and I went to look in the rest of the rooms to see if he had fallen asleep somewhere else. But he wasn’t anywhere in the apartment.

  
Weird, I thought as I went back out into the new Olympus to see if he was walking around. I knew that he sometimes had nightmares; most demigods do. So maybe he went for a walk and didn’t want to disturb me while I was still out. But after a while of not seeing anything, I began to think that maybe there was an emergency at camp or with his mom that had called him back down to New York.

  
Taking two drachmas out of my bag, I first sent an Iris-message to Sally. She and Paul were sitting in their living room, probably watching TV, but they both said they hadn’t seen or heard from Percy. The next message I sent to Chiron, and he said the same thing. Percy wouldn’t just up a leave without so much as a warning to any of us. The only logical conclusion I could deduce was that someone had taken him.


End file.
